1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and corresponding method for managing online charging in a communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Online charging methods are used, for example, for charging the non-voice services of prepaid customers, coordinating charging for a multimedia session between a mobile terminal and a remote host on both an application/media level and on an IP/access bearer level, and for minimizing credit losses caused by subscribers, while at the same time maintaining good performance of the system.
The traditional IN-based Prepaid Systems have been designed for charging the voice calls of prepaid customers. Today, prepaid subscribers form the majority of the total worldwide customer base and they want to be able to use the same services as the postpaid users. Until now, the lack of open, real-time charging solution has been slowing down the service deployment in prepaid environment.
Patent publication WO 02/37870 discloses one mechanism for coordinating charging for a multimedia session between a mobile terminal and a remote host on both an application/media level and on an IP/access bearer level. A token associated with the multimedia session is generated and used to correlate session charges for operations performed in the packet-switched access network and for operations performed in the multimedia system. However, the actual charging, and especially controlling the availability of services among the user session, is not described in the publication. Actually, the publication describes how to correlate different kind of events together in multimedia environment. These functions have been done equivalently for many years in conventional networks such as GSM networks.
Patent publication WO 02/67156 describes another method for control of billing in a communications network. The objective is to accomplish a mechanism for minimizing credit losses caused by subscribers, while at the same time maintaining good performance of the system. A gateway receives service requests and filters out the requests for which the analysis performed indicates that a credit loss risk is involved. For these service requests an in-advance credit check is initiated. If the credit check indicates that the delivery is permissible, a reservation is made for the amount of money corresponding to the service price, i.e. the said sum is reserved in the subscriber account so that said sum cannot be used by another service request in the meantime. When the service has been delivered successfully, the reservation is confirmed and the said sum is debited from the balance of the subscriber account. Otherwise, the reservation is cancelled. This publication concentrates to check the credit of subscriber and reserving money from the account of the subscriber when needed.
Drawbacks appear in the state of art when faster end user session management, especially charging, is required or desired. Operations requiring faster end user session charging can not be performed and operations desiring faster end user charging are performed inconveniently. An example of operations that require faster end user session charging is online service offered to an unknown client. An example of operation that is performed inconveniently is practical necessity to give one's credit card number to unreliable host for charging Internet purchases.